Helsinki Times

Helsinki Times
TypeOnline newspaper
Owner(s)Dream Catcher Oy
EditorAlexis Kouros
Founded2007
Ceased publication2015 (print)
HeadquartersHelsinki
Websitewww.helsinkitimes.fi Edit this at Wikidata

Helsinki Times is the first English-language daily online newspaper in Finland providing domestic and international news for the country's English-speaking readers. A weekly printed edition was issued between 2007 and 2015.

History

Helsinki Times one-year anniversary advertisement on a Helsinki Tram in 2008

Helsinki Times was established in April 2007 by Iranian-born doctor, writer, journalist and director Alexis Kouros, who settled in Finland in 1990.[1] A paper version was published in tabloid format[2] and was eventually discontinued in February 2015.[3] However, helsinkitimes.fi is updated several times per day with domestic news about Finland in English, resulting in a large archive of Finland-related articles.

Helsinki Times has had partnerships with The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, Reuters, Inter Press Service, People's Daily, and other prominent international media outlets. Columns and articles from these media were published in Helsinki Times regularly; some of them also advertised their sites and services. Domestically, Helsinki Times partnered with Finland's main newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat, where Helsinki Times was the official English-language edition of Helsingin Sanomat. During that partnership, which lasted from 2014 to 2016, in addition to its original columns and articles, some articles from the Finnish paper were translated and published in English on the Helsinki Times website.[4]

Nowadays, Helsinki Times is a free online newspaper published by media company Dream Catcher. Notable guest columnists included Mikhail Gorbachev, Dilma Rousseff, Calestous Juma, Pekka Haavisto, Yuri Fedotov, Cynthia McKinney, Giovanni Buttarelli, Jutta Urpilainen, Sanni Grahn-Laasonen, Bill Durodié, Veltto Virtanen, and Maria Guzenina.[5][6]

Apart from Helsinki Times, award-winning documentaries and TV series, and books, Dream Catcher also publishes SixDegrees, an online service featuring articles and columns about lifestyle, culture, society, as well as interviews and weekly guest contributions by immigrants in Finland.[7]

Since 2020, the website has included sections for China News in English and Simplified Chinese, whose articles are provided directly by People's Daily, the official mouthpiece of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, and which have downplayed the Xinjiang internment camps[8] and published Chinese state disinformation about COVID-19.[9] The newspaper defended the arrangement as an attempt to balance allegedly biased Western media reports.[9]

See also

References

  1. ^ English Supplement Archived 14 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine Helsinki Info. Issue 6. 13 December 2010. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
  2. ^ "Newspapers and News Magazines - Europe". Infocobuild. Archived from the original on 5 February 2015. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
  3. ^ Pietiläinen, Tuomo (10 February 2015). "'Emme halunneet myydä propagandalehdeksi' – Helsinki Times lopettaa paperiversionsa". Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish). Archived from the original on 13 February 2015. Retrieved 15 February 2015.
  4. ^ "Helsingin Sanomat and Helsinki Times to cooperate". Helsinki Times. 13 November 2013. Archived from the original on 9 November 2014. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
    "Helsingin Sanomat ja Helsinki Times yhteistyöhön". Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish). 14 November 2013. Retrieved 10 April 2014.
  5. ^ Viewpoint Archived 6 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine. helsinkitimes.fi. Retrieved on 22 July 2016.
  6. ^ MP Talk Archived 12 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine. helsinkitimes.fi. Retrieved on 22 July 2016.
  7. ^ What is SixDegrees?[permanent dead link‍]. 6d.fi. Retrieved on 22 July 2016.
  8. ^ "Western allegation of genocide in Xinjiang hardly convincing: Singaporean newspaper". Helsinki Times. 12 June 2021. Archived from the original on 24 June 2021. Retrieved 23 June 2021.
  9. ^ a b Kinetz, Erika (15 February 2021). "Anatomy of a conspiracy: With COVID, China took leading role". Associated Press. Archived from the original on 13 March 2021. Retrieved 12 March 2021. On Feb. 22, People's Daily ran a report highlighting speculation that the U.S. military brought the virus to China, pushing the story globally through inserts in newspapers such as the Helsinki Times in Finland and the New Zealand Herald.